Late Wednesday night, the Dallas Cowboys cut ties with wide receiver Terrell Owens. This signaled the end of Owens' three-year career with the Cowboys and another failed experiment with the controversial player. But more importantly, the Cowboys sent a strong and valuable message to the rest of the league: To be a successful team, you not only need to have a dynamic chemistry on the field, but off the field as well.
Owens is 35 years old, but by his statistics in Dallas, you would have thought he might be entering the prime of his career. Although his stats have dropped off slightly, he's stayed consistent, and his 10 touchdowns last season tied him for fifth among NFL receivers. But as Cowboys owner Jerry Jones knows all too well, numbers were never the issue with Owens.
The Cowboys reached the first round of the playoffs in Owens' first season and had a first-round bye in 2007 before both seasons ended in disappointment for Dallas' big-time expectations. Owens was fully integrated into the organization, and the staff began to witness his confrontational behavior firsthand.
Last season, this type of behavior reached a climax as the Cowboys began to lose a firm grip on their division lead. Owens constantly clashed with offensive coordinator Jason Garrett and complained that he should have been more involved in the Cowboy offense. Then he reportedly got into a near-physical altercation with tight end Jason Witten in mid-December.
Eventually, the two appeared to put this disagreement behind them before losing the last two games and missing the postseason.
Dallas entered this offseason like any team, looking for ways to improve and learn from the mistakes of the previous year. But it became apparent that Owens had caused irreversible damage in the locker room and the distractions were having a negative impact on the team's on-field performance. Jones deserves a tremendous amount of credit—he made a gutsy move that cost his team roughly $9 million in salary cap for this year, but he did it for the well-being of his franchise and the future direction of his team.
Without a doubt, Owens still proved his dedication to the Cowboys during his time in Dallas. It's ironic that part of his downfall has actually been his intense drive for winning championships, which would initially appear to be an excellent quality for any football player. But Owens also gets so caught up emotionally—see his meltdown in defending quarterback Tony Romo last year—that instead of helping his teams win, he harms everyone around him.
Sometime around kindergarten, all of us are taught the basics of sharing and getting along with others. Owens must have either had a very weak teacher or missed the memo. After 13 seasons in the NFL, he's still notoriously unpopular in every locker room.
Today's league management and fans put far too much emphasis on building a team by stockpiling players with the highest individual talent. There's so much more that goes into creating a championship-caliber team—leadership, intelligence and, most certainly, chemistry between personalities. Throughout his career, Owens' emotional distractions have outweighed his benefit to a franchise, no matter how successful he has been as a receiver.
It seems highly unlikely that a new team won't take a huge gamble on Owens by signing him to a new contract this offseason. He's still a talented, explosive receiver who can change a game at any moment and make things extremely difficult for opposing teams. But this experiment will likely be another lost cause if that franchise's management doesn't emphasize a dramatic change in something that's just as important as Owens' on-field performance: his attitude and ability to get along with those around him.
Did Dallas make the right decision by letting Owens go? E-mail Matt your thoughts at mfox2@wisc.edu.
